Open House at ESO for the Long Night of Science

On Saturday 27 June 2015, ESO will open its doors to the public between 18:00 and 24:00 CEST at its Headquarters in Garching bei München, near Munich, Germany. This year’s ESO Open House Day event is part of the Long Night of Science (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften) that is taking place at many institutes across the Garching research campus.

Visitors are invited to experience ESO in the evening and up to midnight by participating in a diverse range of activities. Some of the highlights of the 2015 programme are:

Explore ESO Headquarters and catch a glimpse of the construction work for the future Planetarium and Visitor Centre, the ESO Supernova — participate in guided tours through the innovatively styled office building and our technical building. See the construction work for the ESO Supernova. Planned to open in 2017, it will be the largest tilted planetarium in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Learn how ESO creates artificial stars, see what mirror prototypes for the Extremely Large Telescope look like and more;

Live connection to Paranal and ALMA — take a virtual trip and connect to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal and to ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence, consisting of 66 antennas located at 5000 metres above sea level on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile;

ESO Chile Chill — enjoy a moment of relaxation by watching incredible images from our sites in Chile and listening to a chillout soundtrack;

Talks, podcasts and documentaries — step inside the world of ESO by listening to scientists and engineers and watching movies;

Planetarium show — get a chance to see the stars, even in broad daylight, thanks to our planetarium activity;

Infrared photos, hunt for stickers and gifts — children will have lots of fun having their infrared photo taken, searching for stickers to fill out their album and receiving rewards for their efforts;

Virtual trip across the sky — enjoy an introduction to the sky with its constellations and planets visible during this time thanks to a Stellarium presentation;

Solar and night-time observations — watch the Sun through a small telescope and observe objects in the sky, weather permitting;

Youngsters Special: Looking for future co-workers! — you cannot imagine how creative, exciting and varied science and technology are! Give it a try: Come with us on a hands-on tour, with workshops and experiments. Watch short videos and presentations or simply ask questions to your hearts’ content!

International Year of Light — The “LIGHT: Beyond the Bulb" exhibition showcases the incredible variety of light-based science being researched today.

Plus much more!

Visitors do not need to book a visit in advance. You can simply show up at the activities you are interested in. ESO has a cafeteria where light refreshments will be available.

Media representatives who wish to attend the event are kindly asked to confirm their participation by contacting osandu@partner.eso.org.

Information on how to travel to ESO Headquarters in Garching can be found here.

More information will be found in the programme and map below, soon to be made available.